aRTICLE | Analysing Climate Change Through IPCC
Alternatives for Secure Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies The effort to keep atmospheric temperature not more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial levels is not heading very progressively. The largest contributor towards global warming-emission of carbon gases, and the global response for sustainable development is rather tardy
Tikender Singh Panwar | Former Deputy Mayor, Shimla
h that house? It’s in the sea now- there!”, a story on the Pari website describes the engulfing of a house and many other houses in Uppada village, East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh. T Maramma’s joint family lived in that house until the early year of this century. The sea levels are rising, the impact of climate change is real!
42 April 2022 | www.urbanupdate.in
IPCC VI, Working Group II report
The latest IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) was released on February 27, 2022. This is working group 2(WG2) of the 6th Assessment Report (AR6). A large number of scientists across the world were engaged in the process of writing this report. The report is voluminous runs into 3,676 pages. The report points out the interdependence of climate, ecosystems and biodiversity, and human societies. It also integrates knowledge across the natural, ecological, social and economic sciences, which is a departure from earlier IPCC assessments. This is good. The impacts and risks, as well as adaptation, is seen in concurrence to non-climatic global trends-biodiversity loss, overall unsustainable consumption of natural resources, land and ecosystem degradation, rapid urbanisation, human geographic shifts, social and economic inequalities and a pandemic. This is quite an ambitious work done. The WG 2 points out the increase in the frequency of intense extreme events and damages to nature and people, beyond climate variability. The most vulnerable people and systems are observed to be disproportionately affected; the rise in weather and climate extremes has led to some irreversible impacts as natural and human systems are pushed beyond their ability to adapt. The WG2 also lays immense emphasis on the cities. Why? The simple answer is that nearly 4.2 billion people, i.e., more people now live in cities across the world. Cities are major contributors to climate change. According to UNHabitat, cities consume 78 per cent of the world’s energy and produce more than 60 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions. Globally urban populations have grown by more than 397 million people between 2015-20, more than 90 per cent of this growth occurring in Less Developed Regions. And the most rapid growth, according to the report, in urban vulnerability has been in unplanned and informal settlements, and in small to urban medium urban centres in low-and middle-income nations where adaptive capacity is limited.
